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Forecasts differ on the Dubai real estate marketXinhuaDUBAI, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- The Dubai Land Department, the real estate sales authority in the Gulf Arab sheikhdom, said sales of land and properties in 2011 was 20 percent up year-on-year, Gulf News reported. The news triggered hopes in the industry that ...and more »

Petrochemicals and banking, the two heavyweight sectors in Saudi Arabia, helped lift the index to a higher close, gaining strength in late trade as European shares open higher on the year's first trading day.Bellwether Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) gained 0.5 percent, Advanced Petrochemical climbed 2.1 percent and National Industrialization rose 0.6 percent.Signs of some improvement in the manufacturing sector and a surprise drop in German unemployment lifted global stocks and the euro on Tuesday, but rising tension in the Middle East Gulf pushed crude above $110 a barrel.

United Development Co. (UDCD), a Qatari company that invests in energy and infrastructure, advanced the most in a week amid investor speculation that a 16 percent plunge in the previous two days was exaggerated.The shares climbed 1.3 percent, the biggest intraday gain since Dec. 27, to 23.10 at 1:18 p.m. in Doha. The benchmark QE Index (DSM) rose 1.1 percent.United Development tumbled after Qatar’s pension fund said Dec. 28 it seeks to buy 80 million shares at 20 riyals each, or less than the stock’s traded value.

The yield on Dana Gas (DANA) PJSC’s Islamic bonds maturing in October climbed the most in two weeks ahead of a planned company board meeting tomorrow.The rate on the $1 billion of 7.5 percent bonds advanced 165 basis points, the most since Dec. 19, to 38.6 percent at 2:37 p.m. in Dubai, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The yield is the highest since March 2009.“Investors are anxious ahead of this meeting,” Dubai- based Hans Zayed, head of research and strategist at Rasmala Investment Bank Ltd., said in a telephone interview today. “Dana Gas needs to do something for this refinancing sooner rather than later, because if they leave it to later it becomes a time issue.”

Heightening tensions between Iran and the US boosted oil prices on Tuesday, pushing up Brent crude by more than $2.ICE February Brent, the global benchmark, jumped $2.31 a barrel to $109.69 in European morning trading while the Nymex February West Texas Intermediate, the US benchmark, climbed $2.06 a barrel to $100.90, rising above the $100 mark hurdle.

Sudan, which is fighting a severe economic crisis, has launched a sale of Islamic bonds offering an annual return of 20 percent to raise funds for the government, according to its debt agency.

Sudan will offer the Islamic bonds, locally known as shahamas, until January 25, the state-owned Sudan Financial Services Co, which sells sukuk on behalf of the central bank, said in an advertisement published in the local press.

It gave no volume or details of the issue, saying only that the expected annual return would be 20 percent - higher than around 15 percent offered on a similar issue in May.

Banque Saudi Fransi, part-owned by France’s Credit Agricole, has proposed a capital increase through a bonus share issue to help fund the bank’s expansion, it said in a stock exchange announcement.

The 25-percent increase will see the bank’s capital raised to 9.04 billion riyals ($2.41 billion) from 7.23 billion riyals through the issue of one bonus share for every four currently held by shareholders, the statement said.

The capital increase, which will be funded by the bank’s general reserve, still requires the approval of the kingdom’s regulator, the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, and shareholders who will meet during in the first quarter to vote on the proposal, the filing added.

Qatar has proposed preparing a unified format of employment contract for foreign domestic helps across the six Gulf nations, that heavily import workers from foreign countries like India.

The proposal was among the six major recommendations Qatar made at a recent meeting in Manama of the undersecretaries from the ministries of labour of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, a local media report said.

According to various estimates, the total number of Indians in Gulf countries is over 7.5 million. Indian population in the UAE stands at 1.7 million and the largest Indian population in the Gulf is in Saudi Arabia, which has 1.79 million resident Indians, making up just under seven per cent of the population there.

Four years stand out as landmarks in Middle East oil: 1951; 1973; 1979; and 1991.

In those years, the old certainties burned in revolutions and wars, oil prices soared, and the world's energy affairs were set on an entirely different course. To those memorable dates, we can now add 2011.

The regimes that crumbled in the face of popular protests were those in which the failure of the rentier state model became impossible to ignore. The money from modest oil and gas production, in Egypt's case supplemented by foreign aid and Suez Canal tolls, was disbursed on low-paid but undemanding government jobs, and subsidised food and fuel.

The West Asian gold pot is tilting towards India. The oil rich kingdoms of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait — wary of the economic crisis in Europe and the slowing growth rate in America — have conveyed their desire to invest in Indian infrastructure projects.

Despite the weakening rupee and falling Indian stock markets, Saudi Arabia and Qatar told New Delhi last month that they want to move some part of their investments from the West.

What’s more, the Kuwait Investment Authority is planning to invest about $10 billion in the Indian economy and has already invested about $1.5 billion in India in the past two years.

The sultanate of Oman announced Monday a $26-billion budget for 2012 with a deficit expected to reach $3.12 billion, or five percent of its gross domestic product.Expenditure was projected to hit 10 billion rials ($26 billion), up 9.0 percent from 2011, and revenues estimated at 8.8 billion rials ($22.85 billion), said financial affairs minister Darwish al-Balushi.Balushi told a news conference that oil and gas should account for 81 percent of the revenues, at a slightly conservative average price of $75 per barrel, and daily production of 915,000 barrels.